The year 1997 in Hungary was marked by continued growth of the economy, significant changes in the electorate’s party preferences, and increasing public debate over joining NATO. Financial problems in traditional state-sponsored sectors such as health care and education resulted in considerable public discontent and led to trade-union protests. The crisis-ridden agricultural sector also had a rough year; in the spring, farmers blocked roads across the country, protesting government plans to raise their taxes and contributions to the social security system.

Annual inflation dropped to 18% from 24% in 1996, and annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) increased to 3% from 0.5%. Hungary continued to attract the largest amount of direct foreign investment in East-Central Europe, and the Budapest stock market strengthened its position as the region’s strongest exchange. Even so, official growth figures stayed behind those of the fastest-growing economies in the region, partly because the government was unable to curtail the operations of the underground economy, which produced an estimated 30% of GDP. During the year the government launched a major campaign to update the pension system, and the National Assembly passed a pension-reform plan in July.

In April, Ivan Peto stepped down as chairman and caucus leader of the junior coalition party, the Alliance of Free Democrats. With his resignation, which came in the wake of growing public distrust in the governing parties after a privatization scandal in 1996, Peto wanted to give his party renewed dynamism before the 1998 general elections. By the end of the year, the senior coalition member, the Hungarian Socialist Party, had regained most of the supporters it had lost since 1996, despite a strengthening of opposition parties. Early in the year it appeared that the popularity of the moderate, centre-right Federation of Young Democrats-Hungarian Civic Party and the populist, radical right-wing Independent Smallholders’ Party had reached that of the Socialists. That occurred partly as a result of general discontent with the economic austerity program launched in 1995 and partly because of high-level corruption scandals throughout 1996.

The rest of the opposition fell apart. In July 1997 the Christian Democratic People’s Party split in two, and in the autumn parties formerly associated with the defunct Hungarian Democratic Forum and the Christian Democrats forged electoral alliances with the major opposition parties. The Young Democrats joined with the remains of the Democratic Forum and the moderate group of the Christian Democrats, while the Smallholders struck an alliance with the Christian Democrats’ radical splinter group; thus, the political scene was divided into three major power blocs. In the meantime, extraparliamentary parties on the extreme left and extreme right also became significantly stronger; both extremes were fiercely opposed to Hungary’s bid to become a member of NATO.

The long-anticipated offer came in July; Hungary, along with the Czech Republic and Poland, was invited to join NATO. Hungary was subsequently extended a special consultative status. Meanwhile, in its country reports on East-Central European associate countries, the European Union (EU) had given Hungary the best rating regarding its commitment to democracy, its economic competitiveness, and its advancement in adjusting its laws to EU standards.

In a November referendum, Hungarians overwhelmingly supported the country’s NATO membership. Prior to that, however, the issue sparked a loud political and public debate. A suggestion put forward by the Young Democrats in September to hold a fully binding referendum on NATO membership prompted the Cabinet to call one itself. But the referendum plan was bogged down in a political scandal owing to the government’s decision to link it with a referendum on a controversial passage of the land-reform bill, on which the opposition had initiated another referendum.

Opposition parties exploited public protests against government plans to allow foreign capital to enter the country’s strategic agricultural sector and pushed for a total ban on planned foreign ownership. Their effort to put their own questions on referendum were turned down by the coalition parties, which held more than two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly. The Constitutional Court finally ruled that in the opposition-supported land referendum, the original questions rather than those of the government should be asked, which prompted the National Assembly to postpone the issue until the next year.

Relations with the Roman Catholic Church were normalized in June when Prime Minister Gyula Horn signed an agreement with the Vatican; Hungary agreed that the state would return buildings and property seized from the church under communism or else pay compensation. In September the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that both Hungary and Slovakia were at fault in their bitter dispute over the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric project; Hungary had broken international law when it canceled construction work in 1989 and when it unilaterally withdrew from the 1977 bilateral agreement, while Slovakia did not have the right to divert the waters of the Danube to its own territory.

Click anywhere inside the article to add text or insert superscripts, subscripts, and special characters.
You can also highlight a section and use the tools in this bar to modify existing content:

Add links to related Britannica articles!
You can double-click any word or highlight a word or phrase in the text below and then select an article from the search box.
Or, simply highlight a word or phrase in the article, then enter the article name or term you'd like to link to in the search box below, and select from the list of results.

Note: we do not allow links to external resources in editor.
Please click the Web sites link for this article to add citations for
external Web sites.